November 25, 2025 • 45 mins
Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, was murdered under mysterious circumstances. How Mary reacted, and what happened next, would lead to her undoing.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just a quick note before we begin today's episode. This
story contains murder, sexual assault, and pregnancy loss, so if
any of those are particularly sensitive to you, this might
be a good episode to skip.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And on a.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
More personal note unrelated to the episode, before we dive in,
I just wanted to say I have a brand new
book coming out. This one comes out in May twenty
twenty six. It's called The Arcane Arts and it's a sexy,
dark academia book about a professor and a student studying
illicit magic at Magic Grad School. I'm not really good
(00:39):
at describing it. Hopefully I'll get a little better. It's
by a pseudonym by sd coverly because I co wrote
it with a friend of mine, Dan Frye. I wrote
the female points of view, he wrote the male points
of view, and then we sort of blended it together.
It was an incredibly fun collaboration. I love this book.
It's available for pre order now. If you like dark, twisted,
(01:03):
sexy stories in this podcast, I think you'll really like
that book.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Now let's get to the story.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion advised. In early
February fifteen sixty seven, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, the King
of Scotland, arrived at a spacious two story house in Kirkfield,
(01:32):
an abbey and church college near Edinburgh. It had been
a tough year for Lord Darnley so far. He had
been living in Glasgow, away from his wife, Mary, Queen
of Scots, but after Darnley fell dangerously ill, Mary arranged
to bring him to be with her in Edinburgh to convalesse,
(01:53):
perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation after their relationship had
gone downhill in recent months. Kirkfield seemed like the perfect spot.
The air was said to be the healthiest in the
whole town, but still things didn't seem very optimistic. According
(02:14):
to one of Darnelly's advisors, a raven followed their caravan
from Glasgow to Edinburgh and perched on the roof of
the house, an ominous sign. It seemed the raven knew
something mere mortals didn't. February ninth was supposed to be
(02:35):
the last day of Lord Darnley's convalescence. This was the
last Sunday before Lent, and after a day of revelry
attending a wedding and a dinner with a bishop. Mary
and her royal entourage spent the evening with Lord Darnley
in his chamber, playing dice, listening to someone play the lute,
(02:57):
and chatting. Mary considered sleeping over with Lord Darnley at Kirkyfield,
but the Earl of Bothwell, the Sheriff of Edinburgh, and
a member of her entourage reminded Mary that she had
promised to stop by an aristocrat's wedding mask before the
end of the night. Besides, she had to be up
(03:17):
early the next morning to depart from Holyrood on a
diplomatic excursion. Wouldn't it be easier just to sleep in
her castle instead. Mary agreed and departed from Kirkyfield, promising
to see her husband.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
In the morning. At two a m.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
By the time the Queen was asleep in her own
bed at Holyrood, an explosion startled the whole town awake,
including the Queen. One townsperson described it as a clap
of thunder, while the Queen noted that it sounded like
twenty or thirty cannons. Fairly soon after the Queen was
(03:58):
informed what had happened, somebody had carried two trunks of
gunpowder to Lord Darnley's house at Kirkfield earlier that day
and came back that night to light it, causing a
huge blast and demolishing the house. Her husband, Lord Darnley,
(04:19):
had been killed, but strangely, it wasn't the explosion that
killed him. His body was found in the back garden
with signs of strangulation. He had made it out of
the exploded house and been killed. Anyway, this was a murder,
and the suspicious details would unravel the Scottish aristocracy and
(04:45):
change the course of Mary, Queen of Scott's life forever.
I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. As news
of Lord Darnelly's murder spread internationally, there was increasing pressure
on Mary to find and convict the culprit. There was
(05:08):
no shortage of suspects. Lord Darnley was, to put it mildly,
a controversial figure in Scotland and beyond. Because both Mary
and Lord Darnley were descendants of Henry the seventh in England,
their marriage could give them a more legitimate claim on
the English throne than Queen Elizabeth herself, making Darnley a
(05:32):
target of anyone in the Elizabethan court, but even closer
to home, Mary herself and her entourage had even deeper
enmity for Lord Darnley. Despite the fact that Mary had
originally chosen Darnley and married for what seemed to be love.
The bloom was off the rose fairly quickly. Darnley had
(05:55):
a reputation as a power hungry, paranoid drunk. He had
violently stabbed Mary's secretary in front of her while she
was pregnant out of an unfounded fear that he and
Mary were having an affair, traumatizing her and alienating him
from the rest of Mary's court. Like I said, Darnelly
(06:18):
was a guy with plenty of enemies. Within days, a
primary suspect for Darnelly's murder emerged, Lord Bothwell. Bothwell was
a key member of Mary's court, and he wielded political
and military power. He was the Sheriff of Edinburgh, Lord
High Admiral of Scotland and Lieutenant of the border between
(06:42):
England and Scotland. He had access to enough gunpowder to
set off the explosion, and some of his lackeys had
been spotted near Kirkfield around the time of the murder.
He also had a motive. Because Lord Darnley had murdered
Mary's secretary, who was one of Bothwell's allies. He could
(07:03):
have been seeking revenge. Bothwell had done this kind of
thing before. In fifteen sixty two, a political enemy, the
Earl of Erin, spread a rumor about Bothwell that he
planned to abduct Mary, Queen of Scots and marry her
to advance his own political career. These rumors were baseless.
(07:25):
They actually came to the Earl of Erin in a dream,
but Bothwell escalated the situation, threatening to retaliate. Mary was
so afraid of what Bothwell might do to the Earl
of Erin that she sent Bothwell into exile. But even
in exile, Bothwell had his lackey's attempt to abduct the
(07:47):
Earl of Erin's mistress as payback. Just days after Darnley's
murder in March fifteen sixty seven, anonymous placards appeared in
Edinburgh openly accusing Bothwell. The English ambassador Sir William Drury
reported to London that quote, the Earl Bothwell is most
(08:08):
suspected even Mary might have been wary around Bothwell. By
this point, one of Mary's courtiers alleged that one of
Bothwell's allies approached Mary a few months before the murder
asking for written permission to dispatch her husband. Allegedly, Mary
declined and said she wanted to hear nothing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
More of the matter.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Still, Mary seemed conflicted about bringing Bothwell to court. Mary
and Bothwell met in fifteen sixty and had been growing
steadily closer ever since. Even though Bothwell had converted to
Protestantism while Mary was a staunch Catholic, Bothwell had been
steadfast and loyal. Ambassadors reported that Bothwell commanded her confidence
(08:56):
quote more than any other man. Given the chaos in
Mary's court, she felt that she couldn't trust anyone, even
her own husband, who was moved to kill her beloved
secretary based on rumor alone. After Darnley's murder, she needed
support more than ever. Mired in grief, Mary was bedridden
(09:19):
and depressed. Sir William Drury, the Ambassador, reported to the
Secretary of State of England that she was quote for
the most part, either melancholy or sickly. Perhaps this breakdown
was in part fueled by guilt. As historian Antonia Fraser
put it, quote, she had wished Darnley dead and now
(09:42):
he was. Mary's counsel encouraged her to return to matters
of state to distract herself, but that backfired. She tried
to meet the English ambassador in her sick bed, but
she was so ill that she may have had one
of her ladies impersonating her. When the Queen moved from
Hollywood House to Setton a week after Darnley's murder, she
(10:06):
left Bothwell to take care of her baby's son. Mary's
hesitation to convict Bothwell made her a suspect as well.
It was widely known that the Mary Darnelly marriage was fraught,
making her closeness with Bothwell seem increasingly suspect. Placards began
(10:28):
appearing in Edinburgh, now accusing both Mary and Bothwell of
Darnelly's death. On one of the placards, Bothwell was depicted
as a hare while Mary was depicted as a mermaid,
a symbol for a prostitute. Worse, after Bothwell visited Mary
(10:50):
in Seton at the end of March, rumors started spreading
that Bothwell intended to marry the Queen. Some suspected that
they may have been having an affair and conspired together
to have Mary's husband killed. After all, she was the
one who insisted that Darnley meet her in Edinburgh, and
(11:11):
she set him up to convalesce in Kirkyfield. Maybe it
was all part of the murder plan. There's no real
evidence that implicates Mary in her husband's murder. If anything,
it seems she had tried to prevent conspiracies against her
husband throughout their marriage. It was not Mary, but her
(11:32):
courtiers aligned with Bothwell who insisted that Darnley stay at Kirkfield.
Mary had actually raised some concerns that Kirkyfield might be unsafe,
and historically Mary didn't really give Bothwell any special treatment.
She had been willing to arrest Bothwell and send him
(11:53):
to exile without a trial when he had threatened the
Earl of Erin a few years earlier. At the beginning
of April, with public pressure mounting, Bothwell was formally accused
of Darnelly's murder, with a trial planned for April twelve.
In a case like this, it was customary for the
(12:15):
victim's family to initiate the proceedings, manage the prosecution, and
gather evidence, so Mary left the trial to Darnley's father,
the Earl of Lenox. A few days before the trial,
Lennox attempted to gather three thousand armed retainers, a typical
show of force for nobles taking the stand, but his
(12:38):
army was outnumbered by Bothwell's, which might have impacted the trial.
Bothwell's stronger army could, for instance, implicitly or explicitly threaten
witnesses away from testifying against him. Lennox also had a
number of other disadvantages.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
He had only recently.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Moved back to Scotland after twenty years, so he didn't
have many allies in the region, and his late son
was so unpopular that it was hard to galvanize support.
Lenox begged Mary to postpone the trial, but she refused.
Queen's did not participate in matters of criminal justice, so
(13:23):
she was ill equipped to go hunting for legal loopholes
that could justify the delay. Besides, just a couple of
months ago, Lenox had been pressuring her.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
To expedite the trial. The trial went ahead as planned.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
In face of the opposition, and perhaps fearing for his
own life, Lennox didn't show up, fleeing the country entirely.
Lenox's absence meant there was no one willing to testify
against Bothwell or introduce any evidence that could convict him.
It was essentially a sham trial in a courtroom filled
(13:59):
with Bothwell's allies. After seven hours of deliberating, Bothwell was acquitted,
an obvious choice given that there was no permissible evidence
against him. Bothwell installed troops throughout Edinburgh that threatened anyone
who undermined the verdict with hand to hand combat. With
(14:21):
that Bothwell technically was off the hook. He could have
returned to his plumb post as Mary's closest adviser without
much fanfare, but he decided to use this chaotic moment
to pursue even greater political power. On April nineteenth, fifteen
sixty seven, just a week after the trial, he convened
(14:45):
a meeting with various bishops, earls and lords of parliament
Edinburgh's upper crust, to Ainsley Tavern to discuss his next moves. There,
Bothwell revealed his plan. He wanted to mary Mary and
become the king, and he asked everyone present to sign
(15:06):
a document formally supporting the marriage. It's almost hard to
overstate just how crazy this was. It cast the Darnley
murder in an entirely new light. Perhaps Bothwell assassinated Darnley
not only for revenge, but to take his place. This
(15:26):
union with Mary would totally undermine Mary's reputation. If she
married Bothwell, Mary would be replacing her late husband with
the man who, despite his acquittal, remained the only plausible
architect of his murder. Still, as many as twenty four
of the men competing accounts give different numbers in Angeley
(15:50):
Tavern that night signed the document in favor of the marriage.
These men were willing to play along with Bothwell's plan,
but we don't know how they might have really felt. Later,
many of them revealed that they only agreed to the
document because they thought a Bothwell Mary union would confer
(16:11):
them political advantages. The signers were a group of Protestant nobles,
so ensuring Mary had a Protestant husband would undermine the
Catholic stronghold over Scotland that Mary represented. Some might have
represented Bothwell out of loyalty, others out of fear, since
(16:32):
he had a reputation for being a powerful, loose cannon
who sought vengeance on those who confronted him and probably
wasn't afraid of violence.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Others still thought they.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Could sign onto the document and change Bothwell's mind later.
After all, for the record, Bothwell was already married. He
would have to get a divorce, not an easy feat
in sixteenth century Scotland, before he could pursue Mary. Mary
seemed oblivious to Bothwell's plans. During the Ainsley Tavern meeting,
(17:10):
Mary was in Settin for a short rest, so when
Bothwell set off from Edinburgh the next day, met up
with Mary and formally proposed marriage, she was caught off guard.
It had only been a couple of months since her
husband was murdered, and to repeat, Bothwell already had a wife,
(17:32):
but here he was not only demanding her hand in marriage,
but carrying a document that suggested that pretty much all
of the noblemen in Edinburgh also supported that union. Still
Mary turned him down. A letter she wrote to a
bishop the day after confirms that impression. It professed her
(17:54):
loyalty to Pope Pious the fifth and announced her plan
to die a devout Catholic, which would conflict with having
a Protestant wedding with the closest adviser. But Bothwell would
not be deterred so easily. After all, he had already
proven himself willing to go to extreme lengths to get
(18:15):
what he wanted. Nothing would stop him on his quest
for power, not even the Queen. On April twenty fourth,
Mary was finally on the road back to Edinburgh, returning
from her long trip. Perhaps she was nervous to find
out what was waiting for her there. The city had
(18:37):
been in chaos since Darnley's murder. Moreover, she had just
turned down Bothwell's marriage proposal, and he was one of
the most powerful men in Scotland. It's a risky position
going against one of your closest allies. Mary wouldn't even
make it half way to Edinburgh before Bothwell suddenly appeared
(19:00):
on the road with eight hundred men. He warned Mary
that it was too dangerous to return to the city
and that she should instead accompany him to his castle
in Dunbar to hide away. We don't know what was
going through Mary's mind at the time. She was still
feeling physically ill. The day before. She had been delayed
(19:22):
on her journey because she was too weak to continue.
She was probably tired, overwhelmed, confused and conflicted. Maybe she
didn't believe Bothwell and wanted to continue on to Edinburgh.
But she was outnumbered by Bothwell's army and was worried
he might retaliate or force her if she refused. Or
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maybe she believed Bothwell or at least assumed that Bothwell
was less dangerous than whatever conspiracy might be afoot in Edinburgh.
Mary was already paranoid that she might be assassinated, just
like her ex husband. In any case, she said that
she would not like to be the cause of any
more bloodshed and agreed to go with Bothwell to Dunbar.
(20:07):
Historians debate whether or not this constitutes a kidnapping. To some,
like Frasier, Mary clearly consented. She describes Mary as docile
and that the proceedings were so calm and placid that
it is difficult to describe what happened as an abduction,
especially since she didn't even attempt to refuse Bothwell or
(20:30):
seek rescue from the country people as she passed. She
also argues that Mary must have known ahead of time
that Bothwell was on his way. Letters from earlier in
the week between the Earl of Lennox and another noble
discussed the plan, suggesting that it was fairly common knowledge
in Mary's court. Other historians like The French historian Catherine
(20:53):
or Mayville take a more extreme view that Bothwell was
actually doing Mary a favor by intervening that the two
were actually secretly in love, and Bothwell pretended to kidnap
Mary so that they could marry without ruining her reputation
or at least mitigating the damage. These theories have some flaws.
(21:19):
First is that there's no concrete proof that Mary had
been having an affair with Bothwell. While some interpret her
closeness with Bothwell as romantic, Bothwell's overtures only became explicit
after the death of Mary's husband, and Mary had shut
them down. There's also no proof that Mary had heard
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of Bothwell's plan to take her before it occurred, other
than Fraser sense that it seems likely her courtiers may
just as well have heard of the plan and decided
not to tell Mary, not wanting to interfere get in
the way. These theories are also more focused on the
explicit consent itself then the larger conditions that influenced it.
(22:06):
Mary was, I remind you, surrounded by eight hundred armed
men and the guy who probably killed her husband. Even
if she did refuse and Bothwell let her go, back
to Edinburgh. Her political allies there signed a document professing
their loyalty to Bothwell, so Mary may have faced consequences
(22:26):
from them.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Instead.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Bothwell had gathered enough literal and metaphorical ammunition against Mary
that her choice to go with him to Dunbar may
not have really felt like a choice at all. After
she was taken, Mary sent a member of her entourage
head to Edinburgh to alert the Provost that she had
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been kidnapped. The Provost rang the literal alarm bell, and
the citizens called on the government to engineer a rescue,
but by then it was too late. Mary arrived at
Dunbar at midnight with an army surrounding her. That night,
Bothwell raped her. There are a number of accounts that
(23:10):
confirmed this. One noble, who was at Dunbar while it happened,
wrote that regardless of whether or not she had wanted
to marry Bothwell, she had been quote ravished against her will.
Mary herself said in a cryptic note that Bothwell's actions
were quote rough, and that given the circumstances, she had
(23:35):
no choice but quote to make.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The best of it.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
The story got back to Edinburgh days later. By then,
the mood had shifted. While some contemporaries maintained that she
had been kidnapped, most thought that she had gone willingly
and harbored secret romantic feelings for Bothwell. That said, no
one cast any doubt that Bothwell had assault at her.
(24:00):
Mary was known for being straight laced and pious, and
Bothwell for being lecherous and scheming. Still, no one thought
that a rape would exempt Mary from her impending marriage
to Bothwell. If anything, it forced her hand, because the
only way to lessen the sin of sleeping with a
man out of wedlock would be to marry him. According
(24:24):
to them, Bothwell did a heinous act to break down
Mary's sexual boundaries, but she would have to suffer for it.
As historian Ruth Warnick put it, quote, Mary reacted like
many other early modern victims who believed their ravishment polluted them,
unwilling to dishonor her family by revealing the rape and
(24:45):
eliciting charges that she was immensely immodest or that she
deserved to be attacked because she had not lived virtuously enough.
Mary stayed at Dunbar for three weeks, where she seemed
to give up and accept her fate. By the time
she received an offer of rescue at the end of April,
(25:08):
she rejected it, resigned. Now that Bothwell had secured his
new marriage, he set out to dissolve his old one.
That turned out to be way easier than anyone could
have anticipated. His wife was all too happy to get
rid of him. Bothwell set up two divorce trials in
both Protestant and Catholic ecclesiastical courts, and within days the
(25:32):
courts agreed to end his marriage on the grounds that
he cheated on his wife, not with Mary, incidentally, but
with his wife's sewing maid. His servants also found court
officials and threatened to cut off their noses and ears
if the verdict wasn't reached quickly enough. The threats worked.
(25:53):
By May seventh, Bothwell was officially single. That week, Bothwell
also finally brought Mary back to Edinburgh. One onlooker reported
that he was holding the queen by the bridle of
her horse as if she were a captive. On May twelfth,
Mary declared formally that although she had been abducted, she
(26:15):
would agree to marry Bothwell. Three days later, Bothwell and
Mary were wed in a small Protestant ceremony at the
Great Hall of Holyrood. After the wedding, the Earl of
Bothwell technically had a new title, the Duke of Orkney,
but I'll keep referring to him as Bothwell for clarity's sake.
(26:37):
The atmosphere was hardly festive. The wedding banquet was a
rush job. Some protesters placed on the palace gates the
words Wanton's Mary. In the month of May, Mary seemed miserable.
She had already been depressed before Bothwell's abduction, and now
(26:57):
she was doing even a worse. One of her advice
wrote a letter describing a conversation she had had with
the Queen on her wedding day. Mary apologized for seeming
too formal with her new husband. It was because she
felt no joy about the wedding and longed for suicide.
(27:17):
Mary had no idea that behind the scenes, the political
elite of Edinburgh were trying to overturn the marriage. Even
though many of them had signed the letter at Ainsley Tavern.
They had begun to turn against Bothwell a few months before.
They had assumed that Bothwell would repay them for their
support by including them in his plans. Besides, Bothwell probably
(27:41):
seemed like more reasonable choice of a husband for Mary
than the paranoid, murderous Lord Darnley. But by May fifteen
sixty seven, Bothwell seemed much more dangerous than Darnley. He
had murdered someone, kidnapped and raped the Queen, and pipulated
the government toward his own ends. Bothwell had shut out
(28:04):
his former allies, going against their wishes and concentrating his
own power. Even the more specious claims against Bothwell that
these nobles had initially dismissed seemed increasingly reasonable. Earlier in
this episode, we mentioned that in fifteen sixty two, five
years before any of this happened, Lord Erin spread a
(28:27):
rumor that Bothwell would kidnap the Queen and marry her
to advance his own political career. Lord Erin was ruled crazy.
Lest we forget, the information had come to him in
a dream. But Lord Erin turned out to be right.
His dream became a reality. Maybe Lord Erin had even
(28:49):
given Bothwell the idea. At the beginning of May, while
Mary was still in captivity at Dunbar, the nobles of
Edinburgh met up to figure out what to do next.
These confederates planned to gather an army in secret if
Mary couldn't escape the marriage herself, they would do it
for her with whatever force necessary. By June, the anti
(29:15):
Bothwell nobility, known as the Confederates, had gotten organized. The
Confederate lords had occupied the city of Edinburgh and taken
over Parliament, installing troops throughout the city. On June eleventh,
they issued a proclamation that they would rescue the queen,
arrest Bothwell and avenge Darnley's murder once and for all.
(29:38):
Bothwell had already caught wind of the plan. Fearing a
military coup, Bothwell took Mary to Borthwick Castle, about twelve
miles south of Edinburgh to avoid a surprise attack. He
had an army of his own and was ready to
fight back, but when Bothwell and Mary heard that twelve
(30:00):
hundred Confederate troops were on their way to Borthwick Castle,
they fled once again. Bothwell dressed Mary in men's clothing
to avoid suspicion, and they headed back to Dunbar. On
June fifteenth, the two armies finally met up for a
showdown at Carbury Hill, about seven miles from Edinburgh. One
(30:23):
of the Confederates promised Mary that if she abandoned Bothwell
he would restore her to power. Mary refused. It may
seem weird for her to have declared loyalty to Bothwell,
given that he abused her, raped her, and forced her
to marry him. But Mary had a secret. She was pregnant.
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She feared that the child was Bothwell's and didn't want
to sully her reputation further by giving birth to an
illegitimate child. No matter how they had gotten there, She
and Bothwell were married. The two armies were at a standoff,
neither of them particularly wanting to fight. Instead, they argued
(31:09):
about what to do next. After a few hours, Bothwell's
soldiers began wandering off. Bored, Bothwell finally called for single
combat to settle the dispute, but then backed down immediately,
claiming that he was too high status to fight the
guy who had volunteered a higher status. Confederate Lord Lindey
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agreed to fight Bothwell, but Bothwell backed down yet again.
Mary finally took decisive action. She surrendered to the Confederates
on a promise of good treatment and if they let
Bothwell go free again. Her choice is somewhat puzzling. Why
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would she want to protect Bothwell after everything he did
to her. Some historians interpret this as an expression of
love or affection for Bothwell, while others think she did
so out of political strategy to separate herself from Bothwell
and his influence to argue for her own innocence. Historians
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also dispute the order of events. Ritha Vornik suggests that
Bothwell decided to flee before Mary agreed to surrender. In
any case, the Confederates accepted her conditions and Bothwell fled,
first to the south of Scotland, then to Denmark. Mary
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would never see him again. Mary was led back to
Edinburgh by her horse's bridle, yet again, this time a
captive of the state. As she entered the city, soldiers
yelled burn the whore. Banners flew across town, depicting Darnley's
corpse lying under a tree and their son kneeling praying
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to the Lord for revenge in her tattered clothes. Mary
was imprisoned, first in Edinburgh and then at a castle
in Lochleven. Weeks passed before anyone figured out what to
do with Mary. She spent her days wandering around the
castle there, with barely anything to do. In captivity, her
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allies met with her and begged her to divorce bothwell
and repudiate him to gain her release. Mary still refused,
finally admitting that she was seven weeks pregnant. She emphasized
that she was only seven weeks pregnant, despite not being
absolutely sure of the date, to claim that conception occurred
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after the wedding, thereby implicitly denying the primerido. A week later,
Mary had a miscarriage, leaving her bed ridden for the
rest of the month of July. On July twenty fourth,
Mary signed as statement claiming that her illness made it
impossible for her to reign. She abdicated the throne to
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her one year old son with Lord Darnley, and appointed
her half brother, the Earl of Moray, as the king Regent.
When Mary's health began to improve in August, Moray arrived
in Lochleven to scold her about her mistakes in a
two day lecture before formally assuming the regency. Mary spent
(34:31):
nearly a year in captivity, writing secret messages in code
and planning an escape. Finally, on May second, she boarded
a stolen boat in its skies and rode horses to
Hamilton House. A few miles from Glasgow. Two days later,
she told Moray that she disavowed giving up the crown.
(34:52):
Six thousand men joined her to protect her and reinstall
her as the Queen. Angry with Moray for Tree aiding
her so poorly in prison and holding her accountable for
her husband's death rather than bothwell. As Mary and her
army headed toward Dunbarton Castle, Moorey sent a force of
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troops to go after her. Even though Morey had a
smaller army of only four thousand soldiers, he managed to
defeat Mary. She was not expecting Moray to actually engage
them in battle, so her troops were too chaotic and
disorganized to prevail. Mary also hadn't expected Morey to focus
(35:34):
on apprehending her When she tried to escape in the
middle of the battle, Moray redirected his soldiers from fighting
to seize her instead. After narrowly escaping. After the humiliating defeat,
Mary decided to serve out the rest of her imprisonment
in England. She felt like she had no choice. While France,
(35:57):
a Catholic country, would have been friendlier to Mary, she
couldn't make it all the way there on the dinghy fishing.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Boat provided to her.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
She figured that in England, her cousin, Queen Elizabeth the First,
would keep her safe and maybe even help her win
back the Scottish throne. Elizabeth had to thread a delicate
political needle. She didn't want to openly support Mary since
Mary was accused of murder, but she didn't want to
(36:26):
execute her or send her back to Scotland and create
a Catholic murder, so she called for a formal inquiry
into the accusations against Mary, hoping to produce a verdict
that could guide her towards a decision. Mary agreed to
go along with the inquiry if she maintained her royal
rank during the trial, and if the inquiry was not
(36:49):
about her alleged murder of Darnley or the marriage with bothwell,
but instead focused on whether or not she would be
able to rule over Scotland. On October fourth, fifteen sixty eight,
the first day of the hearing, the inquiry did not
follow either of those conditions. One reason is that Moray
(37:10):
took over the prosecution, and he aimed to prove without
a doubt that Mary was behind Lord Darnley's murder, so
that she could never rule again. Moray, a Protestant who
happily accepted Elizabeth's authority, had many allies in the English court.
Mary felt like the English officials in charge of the
(37:32):
trial were already on Morey's side. After a few days
of taking oaths and reading commissions, Mary's team still had
some hope that the trial would reach an agreement that
could satisfy both sides. But Moray went straight for the jugular.
He accused Mary of having an affair with Bothwell before
(37:55):
her husband's death, hoping to exploit the fact that, as
a Varnik put it quote, many contemporaries viewed fornication not
only as more criminal than murder, but also as inevitably
leading to murder. Moray introduced his primary evidence for that
claim a series of documents in a foot long silver casket,
(38:19):
including six love letters written by Mary to Bothwell, two
contracts of marriage, one signed before Bothwell's murder trial, a
request from Mary to the nobleman to sign the Ainsley
Tavern band, and a French love ballad. These quote casket letters,
(38:41):
named after the casket they were stored in, seemed to
damn Mary's case, proving that she was not a victim
of Bothwell at all, but rather that she had been
in love with Bothwell for years and conspired with him
to murder Lord Darnley. Most historians think these letters were forged.
(39:02):
Some were entirely invented, while others were probably rewrites of
actual letters that Mary had written to other people. The
Casket letters were said to have been discovered at Edinburgh
Castle in June of fifteen sixty seven, after Mary had
been captured. But why would Bothwell keep his letters from
(39:24):
Mary there when he didn't live there. He barely spent
any time in Edinburgh aside from his wedding to Mary.
Mary also tended to use ciphers and codes to write
about sensitive material, and the letters contained several inaccuracies. In
fifteen sixty nine, Mary told Elizabeth quote that even if
(39:46):
she had imagined the foolish remarks in the Casket letters,
she never would have put them in writing. It seems
that Elizabeth did not take these letters particularly seriously, because
the inquiry continued.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
On for months.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Mary's side offered various concessions to the Crown, like vowing
to educate her son in England in exchange for her reinstatement,
while Moray sought to destroy Mary's reputation entirely. Mary's side
thought Elizabeth had been unfair. She had agreed to meet
with Moray outside of the inquiry and allowed him to
(40:26):
appear at the hearings, while Mary could not participate in
her own investigation or testify for herself. Mary didn't even
know what she was being accused of in any case.
Elizabeth ended the inquiry in January fifteen sixty nine, refusing
to issue a decision, arguing that there was not enough
(40:48):
proof to convict Mary nor to exonerate her. Our other
episode about Mary Queen of scott goes into more depth
about what happened during the rest of Mary Mary's imprisonment
and how Elizabeth eventually made the decision to execute her
in fifteen eighty seven. But this inquiry in fifteen sixty nine,
(41:11):
even though it ended inconclusively, cemented a narrative of the
relationship between Bothwell and Mary in the historical record. Even
though the courts didn't take the casket letters seriously, they
were published in fifteen seventy one in a book accusing
Mary of pursuing Bothwell and orchestrating Darnley's murder. Another account
(41:36):
denied this reading and proclaimed Mary's innocence, dismissing the letters
as forgeries. These two competing versions of the story of
Bothwell and Mary's relationship persist even after four centuries. By now,
most historians, with a few exceptions, believe that while Mary
(41:57):
may have had a hostile relationship with Darnley, she did
not actively participate in his death. She chose to marry
and defend Bothwell not out of love, but out of desperation.
She had suffered the death of her husband, a debilitating illness,
a kidnapping, and a rape. In a society that punished
(42:21):
adultery even over murder and blamed women for their own assaults,
Mary was stuck between a rock and a hard place,
a place where even a queen had no power. That's
the tragic story of Mary, Queen of Scots and Bothwell.
But stick around to hear about Mary's favorite prison pastime,
(42:45):
needle point. In her years in prison, Mary had a
lot of time on her hands under house arrest. At
George Talbot's English estate from fifteen sixty eight to fifteen
eighty five, Mary befriended his second wife, Bess of Hardwicke,
(43:08):
who was a great embroiderer. Mary already had an interest
in sewing and embroidery. When Mary was imprisoned in Scotland
in fifteen sixty seven, her allies petitioned the Earl of
Moray to appoint her an embroiderer to draw designs for
her sewing. Morey refused. It was common for wealthy women
(43:30):
to spend time together embroidering. Each person would work on
a panel that then could be sewn together like a quilt.
The panels Mary and Bess worked on together mostly depicted animals, dogs, bees, elephants, tigers,
even dragons. My favorite features a cat playing with a
mouse called a cat. Some art historians have tried to
(43:55):
decode these panels for hidden meaning. The Victoria and alas
Albert Museum interprets one panel quote depicting a grape vine
and a hand holding a pruning knife as a reference
to quote Mary's claim on the throne, suggesting the need
to cut away the fruitless branch of the tudor tree
(44:16):
represented by the childless and quote illegitimate Elizabeth. The point
is driven home by the Latin motto viriskit vulner vitus
virtue flourishes by.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Wounding end quote.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
It's not entirely clear whether this was Mary's intention, but
the panel was introduced in a treason trial as evidence
that Mary had in fact been conspiring against Elizabeth. Noble
(44:57):
Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild
from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender,
Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is edited and
produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali
(45:20):
and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Just a quick note before we begin today's episode. This
story contains murder, sexual assault, and pregnancy loss, so if
any of those are particularly sensitive to you, this might
be a good episode to skip.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And on a.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
More personal note unrelated to the episode, before we dive in,
I just wanted to say I have a brand new
book coming out. This one comes out in May twenty
twenty six. It's called The Arcane Arts and it's a sexy,
dark academia book about a professor and a student studying
illicit magic at Magic Grad School. I'm not really good
(00:39):
at describing it. Hopefully I'll get a little better. It's
by a pseudonym by sd coverly because I co wrote
it with a friend of mine, Dan Frye. I wrote
the female points of view, he wrote the male points
of view, and then we sort of blended it together.
It was an incredibly fun collaboration. I love this book.
It's available for pre order now. If you like dark, twisted,
(01:03):
sexy stories in this podcast, I think you'll really like
that book.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Now let's get to the story.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion advised. In early
February fifteen sixty seven, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, the King
of Scotland, arrived at a spacious two story house in Kirkfield,
(01:32):
an abbey and church college near Edinburgh. It had been
a tough year for Lord Darnley so far. He had
been living in Glasgow, away from his wife, Mary, Queen
of Scots, but after Darnley fell dangerously ill, Mary arranged
to bring him to be with her in Edinburgh to convalesse,
(01:53):
perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation after their relationship had
gone downhill in recent months. Kirkfield seemed like the perfect spot.
The air was said to be the healthiest in the
whole town, but still things didn't seem very optimistic. According
(02:14):
to one of Darnelly's advisors, a raven followed their caravan
from Glasgow to Edinburgh and perched on the roof of
the house, an ominous sign. It seemed the raven knew
something mere mortals didn't. February ninth was supposed to be
(02:35):
the last day of Lord Darnley's convalescence. This was the
last Sunday before Lent, and after a day of revelry
attending a wedding and a dinner with a bishop. Mary
and her royal entourage spent the evening with Lord Darnley
in his chamber, playing dice, listening to someone play the lute,
(02:57):
and chatting. Mary considered sleeping over with Lord Darnley at Kirkyfield,
but the Earl of Bothwell, the Sheriff of Edinburgh, and
a member of her entourage reminded Mary that she had
promised to stop by an aristocrat's wedding mask before the
end of the night. Besides, she had to be up
(03:17):
early the next morning to depart from Holyrood on a
diplomatic excursion. Wouldn't it be easier just to sleep in
her castle instead. Mary agreed and departed from Kirkyfield, promising
to see her husband.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
In the morning. At two a m.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
By the time the Queen was asleep in her own
bed at Holyrood, an explosion startled the whole town awake,
including the Queen. One townsperson described it as a clap
of thunder, while the Queen noted that it sounded like
twenty or thirty cannons. Fairly soon after the Queen was
(03:58):
informed what had happened, somebody had carried two trunks of
gunpowder to Lord Darnley's house at Kirkfield earlier that day
and came back that night to light it, causing a
huge blast and demolishing the house. Her husband, Lord Darnley,
(04:19):
had been killed, but strangely, it wasn't the explosion that
killed him. His body was found in the back garden
with signs of strangulation. He had made it out of
the exploded house and been killed. Anyway, this was a murder,
and the suspicious details would unravel the Scottish aristocracy and
(04:45):
change the course of Mary, Queen of Scott's life forever.
I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. As news
of Lord Darnelly's murder spread internationally, there was increasing pressure
on Mary to find and convict the culprit. There was
(05:08):
no shortage of suspects. Lord Darnley was, to put it mildly,
a controversial figure in Scotland and beyond. Because both Mary
and Lord Darnley were descendants of Henry the seventh in England,
their marriage could give them a more legitimate claim on
the English throne than Queen Elizabeth herself, making Darnley a
(05:32):
target of anyone in the Elizabethan court, but even closer
to home, Mary herself and her entourage had even deeper
enmity for Lord Darnley. Despite the fact that Mary had
originally chosen Darnley and married for what seemed to be love.
The bloom was off the rose fairly quickly. Darnley had
(05:55):
a reputation as a power hungry, paranoid drunk. He had
violently stabbed Mary's secretary in front of her while she
was pregnant out of an unfounded fear that he and
Mary were having an affair, traumatizing her and alienating him
from the rest of Mary's court. Like I said, Darnelly
(06:18):
was a guy with plenty of enemies. Within days, a
primary suspect for Darnelly's murder emerged, Lord Bothwell. Bothwell was
a key member of Mary's court, and he wielded political
and military power. He was the Sheriff of Edinburgh, Lord
High Admiral of Scotland and Lieutenant of the border between
(06:42):
England and Scotland. He had access to enough gunpowder to
set off the explosion, and some of his lackeys had
been spotted near Kirkfield around the time of the murder.
He also had a motive. Because Lord Darnley had murdered
Mary's secretary, who was one of Bothwell's allies. He could
(07:03):
have been seeking revenge. Bothwell had done this kind of
thing before. In fifteen sixty two, a political enemy, the
Earl of Erin, spread a rumor about Bothwell that he
planned to abduct Mary, Queen of Scots and marry her
to advance his own political career. These rumors were baseless.
(07:25):
They actually came to the Earl of Erin in a dream,
but Bothwell escalated the situation, threatening to retaliate. Mary was
so afraid of what Bothwell might do to the Earl
of Erin that she sent Bothwell into exile. But even
in exile, Bothwell had his lackey's attempt to abduct the
(07:47):
Earl of Erin's mistress as payback. Just days after Darnley's
murder in March fifteen sixty seven, anonymous placards appeared in
Edinburgh openly accusing Bothwell. The English ambassador Sir William Drury
reported to London that quote, the Earl Bothwell is most
(08:08):
suspected even Mary might have been wary around Bothwell. By
this point, one of Mary's courtiers alleged that one of
Bothwell's allies approached Mary a few months before the murder
asking for written permission to dispatch her husband. Allegedly, Mary
declined and said she wanted to hear nothing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
More of the matter.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Still, Mary seemed conflicted about bringing Bothwell to court. Mary
and Bothwell met in fifteen sixty and had been growing
steadily closer ever since. Even though Bothwell had converted to
Protestantism while Mary was a staunch Catholic, Bothwell had been
steadfast and loyal. Ambassadors reported that Bothwell commanded her confidence
(08:56):
quote more than any other man. Given the chaos in
Mary's court, she felt that she couldn't trust anyone, even
her own husband, who was moved to kill her beloved
secretary based on rumor alone. After Darnley's murder, she needed
support more than ever. Mired in grief, Mary was bedridden
(09:19):
and depressed. Sir William Drury, the Ambassador, reported to the
Secretary of State of England that she was quote for
the most part, either melancholy or sickly. Perhaps this breakdown
was in part fueled by guilt. As historian Antonia Fraser
put it, quote, she had wished Darnley dead and now
(09:42):
he was. Mary's counsel encouraged her to return to matters
of state to distract herself, but that backfired. She tried
to meet the English ambassador in her sick bed, but
she was so ill that she may have had one
of her ladies impersonating her. When the Queen moved from
Hollywood House to Setton a week after Darnley's murder, she
(10:06):
left Bothwell to take care of her baby's son. Mary's
hesitation to convict Bothwell made her a suspect as well.
It was widely known that the Mary Darnelly marriage was fraught,
making her closeness with Bothwell seem increasingly suspect. Placards began
(10:28):
appearing in Edinburgh, now accusing both Mary and Bothwell of
Darnelly's death. On one of the placards, Bothwell was depicted
as a hare while Mary was depicted as a mermaid,
a symbol for a prostitute. Worse, after Bothwell visited Mary
(10:50):
in Seton at the end of March, rumors started spreading
that Bothwell intended to marry the Queen. Some suspected that
they may have been having an affair and conspired together
to have Mary's husband killed. After all, she was the
one who insisted that Darnley meet her in Edinburgh, and
(11:11):
she set him up to convalesce in Kirkyfield. Maybe it
was all part of the murder plan. There's no real
evidence that implicates Mary in her husband's murder. If anything,
it seems she had tried to prevent conspiracies against her
husband throughout their marriage. It was not Mary, but her
(11:32):
courtiers aligned with Bothwell who insisted that Darnley stay at Kirkfield.
Mary had actually raised some concerns that Kirkyfield might be unsafe,
and historically Mary didn't really give Bothwell any special treatment.
She had been willing to arrest Bothwell and send him
(11:53):
to exile without a trial when he had threatened the
Earl of Erin a few years earlier. At the beginning
of April, with public pressure mounting, Bothwell was formally accused
of Darnelly's murder, with a trial planned for April twelve.
In a case like this, it was customary for the
(12:15):
victim's family to initiate the proceedings, manage the prosecution, and
gather evidence, so Mary left the trial to Darnley's father,
the Earl of Lenox. A few days before the trial,
Lennox attempted to gather three thousand armed retainers, a typical
show of force for nobles taking the stand, but his
(12:38):
army was outnumbered by Bothwell's, which might have impacted the trial.
Bothwell's stronger army could, for instance, implicitly or explicitly threaten
witnesses away from testifying against him. Lennox also had a
number of other disadvantages.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
He had only recently.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Moved back to Scotland after twenty years, so he didn't
have many allies in the region, and his late son
was so unpopular that it was hard to galvanize support.
Lenox begged Mary to postpone the trial, but she refused.
Queen's did not participate in matters of criminal justice, so
(13:23):
she was ill equipped to go hunting for legal loopholes
that could justify the delay. Besides, just a couple of
months ago, Lenox had been pressuring her.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
To expedite the trial. The trial went ahead as planned.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
In face of the opposition, and perhaps fearing for his
own life, Lennox didn't show up, fleeing the country entirely.
Lenox's absence meant there was no one willing to testify
against Bothwell or introduce any evidence that could convict him.
It was essentially a sham trial in a courtroom filled
(13:59):
with Bothwell's allies. After seven hours of deliberating, Bothwell was acquitted,
an obvious choice given that there was no permissible evidence
against him. Bothwell installed troops throughout Edinburgh that threatened anyone
who undermined the verdict with hand to hand combat. With
(14:21):
that Bothwell technically was off the hook. He could have
returned to his plumb post as Mary's closest adviser without
much fanfare, but he decided to use this chaotic moment
to pursue even greater political power. On April nineteenth, fifteen
sixty seven, just a week after the trial, he convened
(14:45):
a meeting with various bishops, earls and lords of parliament
Edinburgh's upper crust, to Ainsley Tavern to discuss his next moves. There,
Bothwell revealed his plan. He wanted to mary Mary and
become the king, and he asked everyone present to sign
(15:06):
a document formally supporting the marriage. It's almost hard to
overstate just how crazy this was. It cast the Darnley
murder in an entirely new light. Perhaps Bothwell assassinated Darnley
not only for revenge, but to take his place. This
(15:26):
union with Mary would totally undermine Mary's reputation. If she
married Bothwell, Mary would be replacing her late husband with
the man who, despite his acquittal, remained the only plausible
architect of his murder. Still, as many as twenty four
of the men competing accounts give different numbers in Angeley
(15:50):
Tavern that night signed the document in favor of the marriage.
These men were willing to play along with Bothwell's plan,
but we don't know how they might have really felt. Later,
many of them revealed that they only agreed to the
document because they thought a Bothwell Mary union would confer
(16:11):
them political advantages. The signers were a group of Protestant nobles,
so ensuring Mary had a Protestant husband would undermine the
Catholic stronghold over Scotland that Mary represented. Some might have
represented Bothwell out of loyalty, others out of fear, since
(16:32):
he had a reputation for being a powerful, loose cannon
who sought vengeance on those who confronted him and probably
wasn't afraid of violence.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Others still thought they.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Could sign onto the document and change Bothwell's mind later.
After all, for the record, Bothwell was already married. He
would have to get a divorce, not an easy feat
in sixteenth century Scotland, before he could pursue Mary. Mary
seemed oblivious to Bothwell's plans. During the Ainsley Tavern meeting,
(17:10):
Mary was in Settin for a short rest, so when
Bothwell set off from Edinburgh the next day, met up
with Mary and formally proposed marriage, she was caught off guard.
It had only been a couple of months since her
husband was murdered, and to repeat, Bothwell already had a wife,
(17:32):
but here he was not only demanding her hand in marriage,
but carrying a document that suggested that pretty much all
of the noblemen in Edinburgh also supported that union. Still
Mary turned him down. A letter she wrote to a
bishop the day after confirms that impression. It professed her
(17:54):
loyalty to Pope Pious the fifth and announced her plan
to die a devout Catholic, which would conflict with having
a Protestant wedding with the closest adviser. But Bothwell would
not be deterred so easily. After all, he had already
proven himself willing to go to extreme lengths to get
(18:15):
what he wanted. Nothing would stop him on his quest
for power, not even the Queen. On April twenty fourth,
Mary was finally on the road back to Edinburgh, returning
from her long trip. Perhaps she was nervous to find
out what was waiting for her there. The city had
(18:37):
been in chaos since Darnley's murder. Moreover, she had just
turned down Bothwell's marriage proposal, and he was one of
the most powerful men in Scotland. It's a risky position
going against one of your closest allies. Mary wouldn't even
make it half way to Edinburgh before Bothwell suddenly appeared
(19:00):
on the road with eight hundred men. He warned Mary
that it was too dangerous to return to the city
and that she should instead accompany him to his castle
in Dunbar to hide away. We don't know what was
going through Mary's mind at the time. She was still
feeling physically ill. The day before. She had been delayed
(19:22):
on her journey because she was too weak to continue.
She was probably tired, overwhelmed, confused and conflicted. Maybe she
didn't believe Bothwell and wanted to continue on to Edinburgh.
But she was outnumbered by Bothwell's army and was worried
he might retaliate or force her if she refused. Or
(19:42):
maybe she believed Bothwell or at least assumed that Bothwell
was less dangerous than whatever conspiracy might be afoot in Edinburgh.
Mary was already paranoid that she might be assassinated, just
like her ex husband. In any case, she said that
she would not like to be the cause of any
more bloodshed and agreed to go with Bothwell to Dunbar.
(20:07):
Historians debate whether or not this constitutes a kidnapping. To some,
like Frasier, Mary clearly consented. She describes Mary as docile
and that the proceedings were so calm and placid that
it is difficult to describe what happened as an abduction,
especially since she didn't even attempt to refuse Bothwell or
(20:30):
seek rescue from the country people as she passed. She
also argues that Mary must have known ahead of time
that Bothwell was on his way. Letters from earlier in
the week between the Earl of Lennox and another noble
discussed the plan, suggesting that it was fairly common knowledge
in Mary's court. Other historians like The French historian Catherine
(20:53):
or Mayville take a more extreme view that Bothwell was
actually doing Mary a favor by intervening that the two
were actually secretly in love, and Bothwell pretended to kidnap
Mary so that they could marry without ruining her reputation
or at least mitigating the damage. These theories have some flaws.
(21:19):
First is that there's no concrete proof that Mary had
been having an affair with Bothwell. While some interpret her
closeness with Bothwell as romantic, Bothwell's overtures only became explicit
after the death of Mary's husband, and Mary had shut
them down. There's also no proof that Mary had heard
(21:41):
of Bothwell's plan to take her before it occurred, other
than Fraser sense that it seems likely her courtiers may
just as well have heard of the plan and decided
not to tell Mary, not wanting to interfere get in
the way. These theories are also more focused on the
explicit consent itself then the larger conditions that influenced it.
(22:06):
Mary was, I remind you, surrounded by eight hundred armed
men and the guy who probably killed her husband. Even
if she did refuse and Bothwell let her go, back
to Edinburgh. Her political allies there signed a document professing
their loyalty to Bothwell, so Mary may have faced consequences
(22:26):
from them.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Instead.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Bothwell had gathered enough literal and metaphorical ammunition against Mary
that her choice to go with him to Dunbar may
not have really felt like a choice at all. After
she was taken, Mary sent a member of her entourage
head to Edinburgh to alert the Provost that she had
(22:49):
been kidnapped. The Provost rang the literal alarm bell, and
the citizens called on the government to engineer a rescue,
but by then it was too late. Mary arrived at
Dunbar at midnight with an army surrounding her. That night,
Bothwell raped her. There are a number of accounts that
(23:10):
confirmed this. One noble, who was at Dunbar while it happened,
wrote that regardless of whether or not she had wanted
to marry Bothwell, she had been quote ravished against her will.
Mary herself said in a cryptic note that Bothwell's actions
were quote rough, and that given the circumstances, she had
(23:35):
no choice but quote to make.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The best of it.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
The story got back to Edinburgh days later. By then,
the mood had shifted. While some contemporaries maintained that she
had been kidnapped, most thought that she had gone willingly
and harbored secret romantic feelings for Bothwell. That said, no
one cast any doubt that Bothwell had assault at her.
(24:00):
Mary was known for being straight laced and pious, and
Bothwell for being lecherous and scheming. Still, no one thought
that a rape would exempt Mary from her impending marriage
to Bothwell. If anything, it forced her hand, because the
only way to lessen the sin of sleeping with a
man out of wedlock would be to marry him. According
(24:24):
to them, Bothwell did a heinous act to break down
Mary's sexual boundaries, but she would have to suffer for it.
As historian Ruth Warnick put it, quote, Mary reacted like
many other early modern victims who believed their ravishment polluted them,
unwilling to dishonor her family by revealing the rape and
(24:45):
eliciting charges that she was immensely immodest or that she
deserved to be attacked because she had not lived virtuously enough.
Mary stayed at Dunbar for three weeks, where she seemed
to give up and accept her fate. By the time
she received an offer of rescue at the end of April,
(25:08):
she rejected it, resigned. Now that Bothwell had secured his
new marriage, he set out to dissolve his old one.
That turned out to be way easier than anyone could
have anticipated. His wife was all too happy to get
rid of him. Bothwell set up two divorce trials in
both Protestant and Catholic ecclesiastical courts, and within days the
(25:32):
courts agreed to end his marriage on the grounds that
he cheated on his wife, not with Mary, incidentally, but
with his wife's sewing maid. His servants also found court
officials and threatened to cut off their noses and ears
if the verdict wasn't reached quickly enough. The threats worked.
(25:53):
By May seventh, Bothwell was officially single. That week, Bothwell
also finally brought Mary back to Edinburgh. One onlooker reported
that he was holding the queen by the bridle of
her horse as if she were a captive. On May twelfth,
Mary declared formally that although she had been abducted, she
(26:15):
would agree to marry Bothwell. Three days later, Bothwell and
Mary were wed in a small Protestant ceremony at the
Great Hall of Holyrood. After the wedding, the Earl of
Bothwell technically had a new title, the Duke of Orkney,
but I'll keep referring to him as Bothwell for clarity's sake.
(26:37):
The atmosphere was hardly festive. The wedding banquet was a
rush job. Some protesters placed on the palace gates the
words Wanton's Mary. In the month of May, Mary seemed miserable.
She had already been depressed before Bothwell's abduction, and now
(26:57):
she was doing even a worse. One of her advice
wrote a letter describing a conversation she had had with
the Queen on her wedding day. Mary apologized for seeming
too formal with her new husband. It was because she
felt no joy about the wedding and longed for suicide.
(27:17):
Mary had no idea that behind the scenes, the political
elite of Edinburgh were trying to overturn the marriage. Even
though many of them had signed the letter at Ainsley Tavern.
They had begun to turn against Bothwell a few months before.
They had assumed that Bothwell would repay them for their
support by including them in his plans. Besides, Bothwell probably
(27:41):
seemed like more reasonable choice of a husband for Mary
than the paranoid, murderous Lord Darnley. But by May fifteen
sixty seven, Bothwell seemed much more dangerous than Darnley. He
had murdered someone, kidnapped and raped the Queen, and pipulated
the government toward his own ends. Bothwell had shut out
(28:04):
his former allies, going against their wishes and concentrating his
own power. Even the more specious claims against Bothwell that
these nobles had initially dismissed seemed increasingly reasonable. Earlier in
this episode, we mentioned that in fifteen sixty two, five
years before any of this happened, Lord Erin spread a
(28:27):
rumor that Bothwell would kidnap the Queen and marry her
to advance his own political career. Lord Erin was ruled crazy.
Lest we forget, the information had come to him in
a dream. But Lord Erin turned out to be right.
His dream became a reality. Maybe Lord Erin had even
(28:49):
given Bothwell the idea. At the beginning of May, while
Mary was still in captivity at Dunbar, the nobles of
Edinburgh met up to figure out what to do next.
These confederates planned to gather an army in secret if
Mary couldn't escape the marriage herself, they would do it
for her with whatever force necessary. By June, the anti
(29:15):
Bothwell nobility, known as the Confederates, had gotten organized. The
Confederate lords had occupied the city of Edinburgh and taken
over Parliament, installing troops throughout the city. On June eleventh,
they issued a proclamation that they would rescue the queen,
arrest Bothwell and avenge Darnley's murder once and for all.
(29:38):
Bothwell had already caught wind of the plan. Fearing a
military coup, Bothwell took Mary to Borthwick Castle, about twelve
miles south of Edinburgh to avoid a surprise attack. He
had an army of his own and was ready to
fight back, but when Bothwell and Mary heard that twelve
(30:00):
hundred Confederate troops were on their way to Borthwick Castle,
they fled once again. Bothwell dressed Mary in men's clothing
to avoid suspicion, and they headed back to Dunbar. On
June fifteenth, the two armies finally met up for a
showdown at Carbury Hill, about seven miles from Edinburgh. One
(30:23):
of the Confederates promised Mary that if she abandoned Bothwell
he would restore her to power. Mary refused. It may
seem weird for her to have declared loyalty to Bothwell,
given that he abused her, raped her, and forced her
to marry him. But Mary had a secret. She was pregnant.
(30:46):
She feared that the child was Bothwell's and didn't want
to sully her reputation further by giving birth to an
illegitimate child. No matter how they had gotten there, She
and Bothwell were married. The two armies were at a standoff,
neither of them particularly wanting to fight. Instead, they argued
(31:09):
about what to do next. After a few hours, Bothwell's
soldiers began wandering off. Bored, Bothwell finally called for single
combat to settle the dispute, but then backed down immediately,
claiming that he was too high status to fight the
guy who had volunteered a higher status. Confederate Lord Lindey
(31:31):
agreed to fight Bothwell, but Bothwell backed down yet again.
Mary finally took decisive action. She surrendered to the Confederates
on a promise of good treatment and if they let
Bothwell go free again. Her choice is somewhat puzzling. Why
(31:52):
would she want to protect Bothwell after everything he did
to her. Some historians interpret this as an expression of
love or affection for Bothwell, while others think she did
so out of political strategy to separate herself from Bothwell
and his influence to argue for her own innocence. Historians
(32:14):
also dispute the order of events. Ritha Vornik suggests that
Bothwell decided to flee before Mary agreed to surrender. In
any case, the Confederates accepted her conditions and Bothwell fled,
first to the south of Scotland, then to Denmark. Mary
(32:35):
would never see him again. Mary was led back to
Edinburgh by her horse's bridle, yet again, this time a
captive of the state. As she entered the city, soldiers
yelled burn the whore. Banners flew across town, depicting Darnley's
corpse lying under a tree and their son kneeling praying
(32:58):
to the Lord for revenge in her tattered clothes. Mary
was imprisoned, first in Edinburgh and then at a castle
in Lochleven. Weeks passed before anyone figured out what to
do with Mary. She spent her days wandering around the
castle there, with barely anything to do. In captivity, her
(33:20):
allies met with her and begged her to divorce bothwell
and repudiate him to gain her release. Mary still refused,
finally admitting that she was seven weeks pregnant. She emphasized
that she was only seven weeks pregnant, despite not being
absolutely sure of the date, to claim that conception occurred
(33:44):
after the wedding, thereby implicitly denying the primerido. A week later,
Mary had a miscarriage, leaving her bed ridden for the
rest of the month of July. On July twenty fourth,
Mary signed as statement claiming that her illness made it
impossible for her to reign. She abdicated the throne to
(34:07):
her one year old son with Lord Darnley, and appointed
her half brother, the Earl of Moray, as the king Regent.
When Mary's health began to improve in August, Moray arrived
in Lochleven to scold her about her mistakes in a
two day lecture before formally assuming the regency. Mary spent
(34:31):
nearly a year in captivity, writing secret messages in code
and planning an escape. Finally, on May second, she boarded
a stolen boat in its skies and rode horses to
Hamilton House. A few miles from Glasgow. Two days later,
she told Moray that she disavowed giving up the crown.
(34:52):
Six thousand men joined her to protect her and reinstall
her as the Queen. Angry with Moray for Tree aiding
her so poorly in prison and holding her accountable for
her husband's death rather than bothwell. As Mary and her
army headed toward Dunbarton Castle, Moorey sent a force of
(35:13):
troops to go after her. Even though Morey had a
smaller army of only four thousand soldiers, he managed to
defeat Mary. She was not expecting Moray to actually engage
them in battle, so her troops were too chaotic and
disorganized to prevail. Mary also hadn't expected Morey to focus
(35:34):
on apprehending her When she tried to escape in the
middle of the battle, Moray redirected his soldiers from fighting
to seize her instead. After narrowly escaping. After the humiliating defeat,
Mary decided to serve out the rest of her imprisonment
in England. She felt like she had no choice. While France,
(35:57):
a Catholic country, would have been friendlier to Mary, she
couldn't make it all the way there on the dinghy fishing.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Boat provided to her.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
She figured that in England, her cousin, Queen Elizabeth the First,
would keep her safe and maybe even help her win
back the Scottish throne. Elizabeth had to thread a delicate
political needle. She didn't want to openly support Mary since
Mary was accused of murder, but she didn't want to
(36:26):
execute her or send her back to Scotland and create
a Catholic murder, so she called for a formal inquiry
into the accusations against Mary, hoping to produce a verdict
that could guide her towards a decision. Mary agreed to
go along with the inquiry if she maintained her royal
rank during the trial, and if the inquiry was not
(36:49):
about her alleged murder of Darnley or the marriage with bothwell,
but instead focused on whether or not she would be
able to rule over Scotland. On October fourth, fifteen sixty eight,
the first day of the hearing, the inquiry did not
follow either of those conditions. One reason is that Moray
(37:10):
took over the prosecution, and he aimed to prove without
a doubt that Mary was behind Lord Darnley's murder, so
that she could never rule again. Moray, a Protestant who
happily accepted Elizabeth's authority, had many allies in the English court.
Mary felt like the English officials in charge of the
(37:32):
trial were already on Morey's side. After a few days
of taking oaths and reading commissions, Mary's team still had
some hope that the trial would reach an agreement that
could satisfy both sides. But Moray went straight for the jugular.
He accused Mary of having an affair with Bothwell before
(37:55):
her husband's death, hoping to exploit the fact that, as
a Varnik put it quote, many contemporaries viewed fornication not
only as more criminal than murder, but also as inevitably
leading to murder. Moray introduced his primary evidence for that
claim a series of documents in a foot long silver casket,
(38:19):
including six love letters written by Mary to Bothwell, two
contracts of marriage, one signed before Bothwell's murder trial, a
request from Mary to the nobleman to sign the Ainsley
Tavern band, and a French love ballad. These quote casket letters,
(38:41):
named after the casket they were stored in, seemed to
damn Mary's case, proving that she was not a victim
of Bothwell at all, but rather that she had been
in love with Bothwell for years and conspired with him
to murder Lord Darnley. Most historians think these letters were forged.
(39:02):
Some were entirely invented, while others were probably rewrites of
actual letters that Mary had written to other people. The
Casket letters were said to have been discovered at Edinburgh
Castle in June of fifteen sixty seven, after Mary had
been captured. But why would Bothwell keep his letters from
(39:24):
Mary there when he didn't live there. He barely spent
any time in Edinburgh aside from his wedding to Mary.
Mary also tended to use ciphers and codes to write
about sensitive material, and the letters contained several inaccuracies. In
fifteen sixty nine, Mary told Elizabeth quote that even if
(39:46):
she had imagined the foolish remarks in the Casket letters,
she never would have put them in writing. It seems
that Elizabeth did not take these letters particularly seriously, because
the inquiry continued.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
On for months.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Mary's side offered various concessions to the Crown, like vowing
to educate her son in England in exchange for her reinstatement,
while Moray sought to destroy Mary's reputation entirely. Mary's side
thought Elizabeth had been unfair. She had agreed to meet
with Moray outside of the inquiry and allowed him to
(40:26):
appear at the hearings, while Mary could not participate in
her own investigation or testify for herself. Mary didn't even
know what she was being accused of in any case.
Elizabeth ended the inquiry in January fifteen sixty nine, refusing
to issue a decision, arguing that there was not enough
(40:48):
proof to convict Mary nor to exonerate her. Our other
episode about Mary Queen of scott goes into more depth
about what happened during the rest of Mary Mary's imprisonment
and how Elizabeth eventually made the decision to execute her
in fifteen eighty seven. But this inquiry in fifteen sixty nine,
(41:11):
even though it ended inconclusively, cemented a narrative of the
relationship between Bothwell and Mary in the historical record. Even
though the courts didn't take the casket letters seriously, they
were published in fifteen seventy one in a book accusing
Mary of pursuing Bothwell and orchestrating Darnley's murder. Another account
(41:36):
denied this reading and proclaimed Mary's innocence, dismissing the letters
as forgeries. These two competing versions of the story of
Bothwell and Mary's relationship persist even after four centuries. By now,
most historians, with a few exceptions, believe that while Mary
(41:57):
may have had a hostile relationship with Darnley, she did
not actively participate in his death. She chose to marry
and defend Bothwell not out of love, but out of desperation.
She had suffered the death of her husband, a debilitating illness,
a kidnapping, and a rape. In a society that punished
(42:21):
adultery even over murder and blamed women for their own assaults,
Mary was stuck between a rock and a hard place,
a place where even a queen had no power. That's
the tragic story of Mary, Queen of Scots and Bothwell.
But stick around to hear about Mary's favorite prison pastime,
(42:45):
needle point. In her years in prison, Mary had a
lot of time on her hands under house arrest. At
George Talbot's English estate from fifteen sixty eight to fifteen
eighty five, Mary befriended his second wife, Bess of Hardwicke,
(43:08):
who was a great embroiderer. Mary already had an interest
in sewing and embroidery. When Mary was imprisoned in Scotland
in fifteen sixty seven, her allies petitioned the Earl of
Moray to appoint her an embroiderer to draw designs for
her sewing. Morey refused. It was common for wealthy women
(43:30):
to spend time together embroidering. Each person would work on
a panel that then could be sewn together like a quilt.
The panels Mary and Bess worked on together mostly depicted animals, dogs, bees, elephants, tigers,
even dragons. My favorite features a cat playing with a
mouse called a cat. Some art historians have tried to
(43:55):
decode these panels for hidden meaning. The Victoria and alas
Albert Museum interprets one panel quote depicting a grape vine
and a hand holding a pruning knife as a reference
to quote Mary's claim on the throne, suggesting the need
to cut away the fruitless branch of the tudor tree
(44:16):
represented by the childless and quote illegitimate Elizabeth. The point
is driven home by the Latin motto viriskit vulner vitus
virtue flourishes by.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Wounding end quote.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
It's not entirely clear whether this was Mary's intention, but
the panel was introduced in a treason trial as evidence
that Mary had in fact been conspiring against Elizabeth. Noble
(44:57):
Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild
from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz,
with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender,
Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is edited and
produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali
(45:20):
and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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